[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
NEWS - Rights Violations Persist in
- Subject: NEWS - Rights Violations Persist in
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 18:53:00
Subject: NEWS - Rights Violations Persist in Myanmar U.N. Report
Rights Violations Persist in Myanmar U.N. Report
Reuters
28-OCT-98
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Human rights violations, ranging
from
torture of prisoners and forced labor to the monitoring of
opposition
political parties, persist in Myanmar, according to a report
by a U.N.
investigator released on Wednesday.
The situation in Myanmar, formerly Burma, "has not evolved
in any
favorable way" since an earlier report on the matter in
April, said
Rajsoomer Lallah of Mauritius, a member of the U.N. Human
Rights
Commission.
"Many reports indicate that in Myanmar political parties in
opposition
continue to be subject to intense and constant monitoring by
the
regime, aimed at restricting their activities and
prohibiting members of
political parties from leaving their localities," he said.
The report was released as U.N. Assistant Secretary-General
Alvaro
de Soto was on a four-day visit to Myanmar, seeking a more
democratic government in the southeast Asian nation of than
41
million people.
De Soto had a meeting Wednesday with Lieutenant-General Khin
Nyunt, the head of military intelligence and a top member of
the ruling
military council.
De Soto was also reported to have met the leader of the
National
League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the
1991
Nobel peace prize, whose party won Myanmar's last election
in 1990,
but was never allowed to take office.
Referring to Suu Kyi, Lallah wrote in his report that he was
particularly
concerned about "the inability of her party to organize
normal political
meetings and functions."
He also said he remained "deeply concerned about the
continued
harassment of political leaders and the detention of many
political
prisoners."
Lallah said he has received "reports indicating that torture
and
ill-treatment, including beatings in prisons and
interrogation centers,
continue to be a common practice."
In view of the sanitary conditions, lack of medical
attention and refusal
to allow access by the International Committee of the Red
Cross, he
said he was "not surprised to continue to receive
information, to the
effect, that several prisoners have died in prison,
including several
members or sympathizers of the NLD."
Lallah said he also still received reports that there is
forced labor
across the nation.
He cited the findings of a commission of inquiry,
established by the
International Labor Organization, that forced labor was
imposed on the
civilian population for portering, building and maintenance
of military
camps, roads, railways and bridges, as well as for work in
agriculture,
logging and other projects.
Another area of concern was the "serious human rights
violations that
continue to be committed by the armed forces in ethnic
minority
areas," he said.
"The violations include extrajudicial and arbitrary
executions (not
sparing women and children), rape, torture, inhuman
treatment, forced
labor and denial of freedom of movement," he said.
Lallah said these violations had been so numerous as to
suggest they
were not isolated incidents "but are rather the result of
policy at the
highest level, entailing political and legal
responsibility."